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Murray Goodwin, Sussex CCC legend

Murray Goodwin, Sussex County Cricket Club Legend

Throwback Thursday

01-Aug-2013

The word legend is bandied about too readily these days, but Murray Goodwin deserves his place in the list of all-time Sussex greats, not least for some of the feats of endurance he performed with the bat during 11 years with the county cricket club.

The Zimbabwean scored two triple hundreds including the unbeaten 335 that helped clinch the county’s first Cricket Championship in 2003.

But an arguably better innings was played six years later at Taunton when Sussex met Somerset. Goodwin went into the game in something of a slump with only 282 first-class runs in 19 innings at an average of 16.58. By the end of the second day he had more than doubled his aggregate after scoring 344, beating his own record for the highest individual score in Sussex’s history.

His score was the sixth-highest in the history of the Championship while Sussex’s total of 742 for 5 was also the highest in their history, beating the 705 they scored against Surrey at Hastings in 1902.

Goodwin and Carl Hopkinson, who made a career-best 139, was another club record, beating the 326 between John Langridge and George Cox against Yorkshire at Leeds in 1949.

What made Goodwin’s effort even more commendable was that he batted with a heavy cold throughout.

Afterwards, his throat was so sore that he struggled to speak to the press but Goodwin did reveal that he had been fortified by several pints of Guinness! “The black stuff and some cold remedies got me through, it seemed to do the trick,” he smiled. Good old Muzza, never to be forgotten!